Schools rugby: Township teams go down fighting
By Christopher Lyles 
(Filed: 24/03/2006)

The two South African township sides failed to progress to the knockout phases of the open tournament at the Wooden Spoon National Schools Sevens festival yesterday, but both acquitted themselves well.

Lagunya and Nomlinganiselo, who are from the township of Nyanga in Cape Town, won three and two of their four matches respectively, and played with plenty of pace and invention.

And none more so than Lazola Gonya, 18, the captain of Lagunya, who had a trial for South Africa's IRB sevens squad this season.

Louis Mzomba, who played at scrum-half for Western Province B and is coaching both teams, said: "The tour is very important for the boys because very few of them have even been out of Cape Town.

Nyanga is full of crime and poverty and has an unemployment rate of 85 per cent. It has been my objective to get youngsters to play sport and to keep them out of court.

Also, the schools and clubs can play a big role in integration and we now have three white boys playing for the Lagunya club."

The Magyars, the girls' team from Hungary, also failed to progress in their tournament, but they did beat Berkhamsted 10-7 in a group match.

Epsom, who defeated champions Sedbergh in the last eight, won the colts tournament when they beat Millfield 29-19 in the final.

After conceding an early try, Epsom scored five unanswered touchdowns to take a 29-5 lead, with Max Page crossing for a brace.

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